Bylines file photo

Associate professor Brett Robbs (above) and Larry Weisberg are trying to learn more about why males still dominate some areas of the advertising industry, particularly creative departments.

By Niki Deford

Walking by an advertising class as it met on the lawn near Macky Auditorium, Associate Professors Larry Weisberg and Brett Robbs noticed something unusual. While 65 percent of the advertising students in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Colorado are female, this class — dealing with creative aspects of advertising — had only a couple of female students.

"The ratio seemed odd to us because there are so many females in advertising," Weisberg said. "We decided to look into it to see if there was a trend of under-representation of women in creative advertising agencies."

Weisberg and Robbs were not the only people interested in the lack of women in creative fields. Advertising Age, a leading industry trade magazine, released a survey of more than 200 agencies that confirmed their notion that men vastly outnumber women in creative departments.

"After the survey came out we did a more in-depth study and wrote a paper, which incorporated research and interviews with successful women at agencies of different sizes around the country," Weisberg said.

After interviewing 24 people — men and women from creative departments as well as account executives — Weisberg and Robbs identified three factors that combine to frustrate women in the field and prevent them from pursuing careers in creative departments:

• Conflict between work and family.
• Lack of female role models.
• Certain aspects of the creative culture such as male bias toward work evaluation and assignment.

"Both of us think the business side of advertising is a really good field for women, but that it is lacking in creative. The latter area is still a boys club," Weisberg said.

Carol Frank, senior art director at The Integer Group, Denver's largest ad agency, agreed with Weisberg.

"Women have to learn how to compete, understand male humor and how to take criticism from male bosses," she said.

Weisberg and Robbs' research also showed that women were often overlooked when it came time to promote somebody or assign a good account.

"There is validity in that, as men are the ones being promoted," Frank said.

While the problem might be easy to identify, changing the way this male-dominated field operates will be hard, Weisberg said.

"The way agencies are dealing with this problem spans the spectrum," he said. "On one end, some agencies are taking the lead, trying to change the environment.

Bylines file photo

Larry Weisberg

"In fact, some of the agencies are using our information to help evaluate the problems. In the middle, there are agencies that want to try and address the problem but aren't sure how to, and then there are those that don't care."

For some women in advertising departments, the unlevel playing field was first encountered in the classroom.

Starting at the very beginning — in advertising classes — is key to getting the ball rolling in the right direction, Weisberg said.

"We need to ask when we are teaching if everything is equal," he said. "Having students become aware that there is a problem of under-representation of women in their field will work toward changing existing attitudes."

Frank believes change is already starting to occur. In the last 20 years, she has seen women gain more respect and more chances to prove they can produce quality work.

"There has been a shift," Frank said. "Generally, things are changing in the business. What it comes down to, is that the cream rises to the top."

However, as Weisberg and Robbs found, many women are still not being given the opportunity to prove they can rise to the top."This is something the industry needs to start thinking about," Weisberg said. "While I don't think there will be any earth-shaking changes, I do think things will evolve as the problem is addressed."